Monday 14th December 2020: Radio Christmas Thought for the Day

Here's the Thought for the Day I did at Radio Christmas this morning. Ian

Over these last few months I’ve probably read a few more books than normal.  It’s one way to brighten up Lockdown.  And people have shared with me their recommendations.

I’ve become a fan of C.J.Sansom’s medieval detective stories, set in the London of Henry the Eighth.  This may be 2020 but over the autumn I’ve become an expert on 1540, as the book I’ve been reading, Dark Fire, is set in the hottest summer of the 16^th century.

Once I let it slip that I was following the antics of Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer cum sleuth in Sansom’s novels, I discovered quite a few fellow devotees.  We exchanged emails and conversations.  Suddendly, and wonderfully, my private reading now had a community aspect to it.

The same was true at our church’s Book Discussion Group last Thursday.  We met on Zoom and shared our thoughts about Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead, a favourite of both Rowan Williams and Barak Obama.  We liked it too, and the conversation flowed and in the sharing I think we all gained insights into parts of the book that had passed us by. 

As we lived the story together, the narrative came alive.

I find this often happens too when we read scripture.

I grew up in Sunday School singing the hymn: Tell me the stories of Jesus.  And much of the Bible is just that, stories.

The Ignatian Christian tradition invites us to step into these stories and smell the flowers.  To imagine what it might have felt like to be fed by Jesus, alongside 5000 others.  Or, how would we have responded to him as he came along the road riding a donkey, would we have waved a palm branch?

Of course there is no better time of year to live in the stories of Jesus than Christmas. To watch with the shepherds or travel with the magi. 

Most of us know the plots of the nativity narratives, yet every year as we hear them, share them and live within them, they can come to us afresh offering new insights.

In a way this has always described something that has, down the centuries, been both the joy and mission of The Church, to be the Story Keepers of Jesus.

In all you do this day, may you know the blessing and joy of God, whose story is still ongoing, to be lived out every day.